De Beaver no 28a special 1977 u

DE BEAVER SPECIAL JUBILEE SOUVENIR 1977
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UNDER THE FLAGS & bunting, with the
Queen looking on from dozens of l~ce­
curtained windows, no less than seven
street parties were held in De Beauvoir
on Jubilee Day.
In this special De Beaver Jubilee
Souvenir Supplement we bring you a
record of some of the excitement,
ranging from a party for nearly 400
children in the Rose Lipman Centre
and the Fermain/Lancresse party in the
New Town, to the old fashioned bunfights in the Old Town at Ufton Rd &
CuI ford Grove. Lockner Rd had a party
on the estate, and the teenagers were
not forgotten at Nortimer Rd's spread.
Rev Baggley & his congregation held a
delightful tea party for older residents at the vicarage, and they, like the
grown-ups at other parties, seemed to
enjoy themselves just as much as the
children.
The kids ran races, gO-karted, dressed
up in fancy dress and watched entertainments, all undaunted bY the sto~
which swept the area for 15 minutes on
the stroke of 4 o'clock.
Then on July 6t~, the Queen & the Duke
of Edinburgh passed along the edge of
De Beauvoir (a gaily decorated Ball's
Pond Rd) on their way from Hackney to
Highbury.
The Jubilee has also been a ti~e oE
nostalgia for older residents, some of
whose recol~ections & photographs of
earlier Royal events are included here.
PHOTOGRAPHS
1
Getting ready to wave to the Queen in
the Ball's Pond Rd.
2
\~inners
and contestants at the New Town
East party fancy dress competition,
3The
young audience at Culford Grove
enjoy the entertainments on stage.
4:Mums
sprint to a photo-finish
(Cul.ford Grove).
5.6
Calm after the storm, and the sun shines
as teas are c ompl eted in Ufton Rd .
7
Ufton Rd tea was served at 4pm, and
the storm broke at 4 .Spm .
8Some
of the 400-plus children who packed
into the Lipman Centre (New Town ,.Test) .
9
For others, a quiet vicarage tea party
(St.Peter's Church).
10
A refuge from the downpour at the
Mortimer Rd party in the old vicarage
garden.
11
A spread
,"~,"()l2I~§
,"~,"()l2I~§
1953 DIMBLEBY a THE
CATS'
MEAT MAN
HORDES OF tIDS piled into the old
KNEES UP THROUGH
5 REIGNS
Memories of the 1935 Silver Jubilee
celebrations of King George V are
strong amongst the old folk of De
• Beauvoir. The street parties, for
both children and adults, the dancing
in ~e streets festooned with flags
and bunting, are still vivid.
Beckford Arms on Coronation Day round
De Beauvoir Square.
They didn't disturb Maggie and Dick,
propping up the public bar - they were
just taking shelter in the Beckford
upstairs room from the rain storm
which had washed out their coronation
party in Hertford Road.
"I remember the old ladies doing the
'Knees Up' in the street, and then it
rained heavily," said a senior ci tizen talking at the Xingsgate Club.
"Then a week la tel' the Queen came
along Shoreditch High Street in a
coach and I went down to see her go
by."
Coronation Day was a rainy day and a
television day. in De Beauvoir. The
"box" had jus t begun to appear and
here, as everywhere in the land, the
Coronation was the first major happening which the magic of TV made accessible to ordinary people.
Plenty of the Club's members remember
standing over a hot stove baking the
cakes for the hundreds of kids who
thronged De Beauvoir in those days.
Everybody too recalled the downpour
which partly spoiled the day's joy.
Families congregated at the houses of
uncles and aunts who had bought one of
the new machines, and they shared with
the Lords and Ladies in "'estminster
Abbey and particularly with the incomparable Richard Dimbleby, the high
drama of royal anointing and crowning.
Mrs.Florence Penfold, of Southgate Rd,
even remembers the 1902 coronation of
Edward VII. She was five years old at
the time and has a clear recollection
of sitting on her father's shoulders
and watching the soldiers march by.
Outside things remained much the same.
The major changes like the disappearance of Lockner Road and with it the
gardens that fronted the square, would
come later.
1902
Her memory of the 1935 Jubilee is not
so happy. While her husband was help~
ing a team erect the flags and bunting
in Southgate Road somebody crept into
their house, broke into two gas meters
and stole £6 - a lot of money for
those days. Mrs.Penfold still cherishes
the Coronation Mug which one of her
children received at school for the
great day.
BECKFORD ARMS
The Beckford Arms still presided over
the short terrace of shops that flanked the southern corner of Hertford and
Englefield Roads. Mr.Botfield the
"cats' meat" man, with his black hat
and club foot, still delivered his
wares every night, kebab-style on a
stick, at 2 old pennies a time.
PIANO IN THE STREET
Jack the Plasterer at the Met must
have been embarking on his long and
honourable career at about that time,
and the decline of religion in De
Beauvoir was being hurried along by
the Anglican vicar who thought
christenings could be traded for regular Sunday School attendance.
Which is not to say that a strong
Christian atmosphere was dying too.
Before the days of community centres
and General Improvement Areas, the
local spirit was sustained by the
sheer closeness of the society. Collections were arranged apontaneously
for those suddenly bereaved or in
trouble, and it is perhaps the remnants of this intimacy which has encouraged well over half the residents
of the early 1950's to stay on.
Miss Win England, of Northchurch Road,
has a happy memory of the 1935 Jubilee
party held in Mortimer Road, where she
lived then. "We had a piano in the
middle of the street, the children ate
lots of cakes, and then balloons were
by everybody," she recalls.
evening the beer flowed freely
amongst the men and women and there
a bit of a ding-dong," Miss England,
who is now blind, remembers fondly.
Recollections of the celebrations of
the 1953 Coronation of Oueen Elizabeth
and much hazier amongst the middleaged and elderly. It was still a time
of austerity and the De Beauvoir area
was in the midst of its run-down
period.
NEIGHBOURLINESS
GRAHAM P4RSEY
It was this neighbourliness that cared
for the area before the DBA and the
belated appearance of a conservationconscious council. Time was, years
before the Coronation, when only residents of the square had keys with
which to get into the central park.
Later the gates were thrown open to
everyone during the daylight hours.
The park was tended by the local residents and a strict park keeper kept
a watchful eye on comings and goings.
In his day the lilac trees went all
the way round.
The concensus of recollections about
, 953 is that is was not c~lebra:t~t1 in
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~____________~the same cohesive, spontaneous way as
the 1935 Jubilee because the character
of the district had changed. Most
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~____~people feel that the pendulum has swung
with 1977 more like 1935.
Derel< Humohrv
COll:OlH~TION 1 953 - the Cu.lford
party (.:r & 11rs Haslett ) .
16
JUBILEE 19V - Lady-in-waiting(Ufton Rd)
17
For those who were here a quarter of
a century ago, it is probably the
childrens' party and Richard Dimbleby
that stick most vividly in the mind
as signifying Coronation time. For the
rest, the De Beauvoir years merge imperceptibly together, and who can say
whether it was the night before or the
night after the Queen was crowned that
the cats' meat man took shelter in the
laundry shop, for fear of a rollingpin welcome home from his wife?
Tom Lloyd and Marge Young
MABEL LOOKS BACK
THE 1935 JUBILEE wasn't celebrated very
lavishly in De Beauvoir, according to
Mabel Hall, because many people were
quite hard up at the time. There were
red, white and blue electric lights in
the windows, flowers, bunting and flags,
but parties were on a modest scale. But
it was all happening in the West End,
says Mabel, and many local people went
to Buckingham Palace to join the thousands singing and dancing there.
The 1953 Coronation was much more festive. Mabel and her family attended the
Ufton Rd street party, which had a piano
in the street, performing acrobats, and
the Victory Dots, a dancing troupe which
included many local children.
Ann Humphry
'Rest and be than.1d'ul ' . Mrs Deborah
Bunting takes advantage of the Jubilee
Seat built by her husband into their
garden wall in Southgate Rd .
REPAIR - SERVICE
HAUE YOU AnV
PHOTOS?
,,'ANT to borrow your pictures. If
you took pictures at any of the Jubilee events, please let us know as we
are keen to see them. We are also trying to compile a comprehensive record
of all the main events in De Beauvoir,
so if you have any photographs of any
events or people in De Beauvoir which
may be of interest to readers, please
contact the Editors . Any photos of De
Beauvoir from earlier years are also
very welcome. All material will be
returned, and will not be damaged in
copying .
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